When you take your puppy for a walk, does it look like this? Then we need,
need to talk about your walking on leash training and some changes that you can
make when it comes to this really important skill.
But we need to look at things a little bit differently. And in today's video,
I'm going to show you how start making better choices in your training so that
your puppy can make better choices too.
I'm Ken Steepe and welcome back to McCann Dogs.
Here in our training facility,
we've helped more than a hundred thousand dog owners overcome the same dog
training challenges that you have. So if this is your first time on the channel,
make sure you hit that subscribe button so that we can help you to have a
well-behaved four legged family member. First things first,
you don't need to be doing any real walking on leash training with your puppy
until they're about 16 weeks old. Before that four month mark,
you should be really focusing on some foundational exercises with your puppy,
the skills that are going to teach them how to learn.
Some of these skills might be following food, teaching your puppy.
What Yes means as a conditioned reinforcer doing some trick training,
response to name.
These are the building block exercises that are going to help your puppy to be
successful.
When you do get out and start working on that leash walking training.
Now the first mistake that people make when it comes to teaching their puppy to
walk on a loose leash,
is they rush out and try to start walking on leash training.
As I mentioned earlier,
foundational skills come first with all the interesting and exciting things out
in the real world. If you haven't shown your puppy,
that you can bring value into their life or that you are worth listening to then
the sights and the smells,
and the sounds all around you in your environment are going to make it pretty
challenging for your puppy to make good choices.
So I really want you to focus on those exercises that teach your puppy,
that if they put in a little bit of effort,
give you some attention that they get rewarded, that's going to make it.
You're starting to walk on leash training, much, much easier.
The next mistake that people commonly make when it comes to walking on leased
training with their puppies is that they're making it far too challenging for
their puppy to be successful. This is a brand new skill for your puppy.
So I want you to keep in mind that all of our training,
especially at the beginning is about motivation and focus.
And we want to turn these training sessions into short sweet,
successful bits of training. Think about the sit stay. For example,
we would never ask our puppy to sit in position for five minutes at the
beginning of the training.
So we want to make sure that we're not doing the same thing with their leash
walking training and a good way to be aware of the level of challenge in your
dog's training is by using the three D's. This is something we often talk about.
The three D's are distance, distraction, duration,
reducing or increasing any one of these can make things more challenging for
your puppy. So let's take a look at how this might apply to your leash. Walking,
training distance, pick a short distance.
Maybe it's just 10 or 15 feet when you start,
but we want to make sure that our puppy starts and ends successfully.
So don't drag it out too long. Distractions,
make sure you're as far away from any distractions as you can be.
And this might mean that you go to some special training spot without anyone
around or with very limited amount of distractions so that your puppy can be
successful.
Maybe it's maybe even your driveway or a room or hallway in your house or
a parking lot after hours, doesn't really matter what that location is.
But I want you to be very mindful of the distractions in the environment so that
you can help your puppy to make good choices. And duration. Now,
I want you to plan for training sessions that are just a few minutes long.
The last thing we want to do is demotivate our puppy by training them when
they're too full or not interested in the treats or reward anymore,
or they're just generally too distracted because you worked on something for too
long. Remember our puppies have short attention spans and tiny bellies.
So we want to take advantage of every opportunity we can to end on a high note.
So when you plan your training session,
set a timer for three or four minutes and then break it off
Once that timer has gone. The next common mistake people make is date.
Don't start with enough control or attention.
You're going to have a lot more success. If you start with your puppy,
giving you some attention already focused on you,
it's also the best way for you to be prepared for the next 15 feet of training.
If you start with your dog in the right place at your side,
maybe you've got some treats preloaded in your hand,
you've got your leash set up and loose.
So there's just a gentle J shape so that the clip is hanging down.
But by preparing for the next 15 or 20 feet,
you are more likely to make good choices. If your puppy struggles a little bit.
Another really common challenge that people have,
and it makes it more difficult for their puppy is they don't know what the right
pace of walking is.
It's pretty easy for you as a handler to get focused on all of the technique
when you're teaching this skill. You're right.
You're trying to keep the leash loose.
You're trying to reward in a specific position.
You're trying to keep an eye out for all of the distractions in the real world.
So it's yeah, not uncommon for people to really slow down their pace.
And the problem is that this actually makes it a lot harder for your puppy.
What you need to do is find the right pace and it's not too fast.
It's not walking too slow,
but it's a pace where your dog's paying a little bit more attention to you.
I want you to walk like you're late for something.
The great part about this is that your dog finds it motivating and,
and entertaining. If you're walking,
you had a very specific pace and you're way more likely for the next 10 or 15
feet to get that great attention.
The other thing it does is it doesn't allow your puppy to discover those
things on the ground or be so focused on a leaf that blows by or a car that
drives by often the distance.
And it allows you to really maintain some of that attention for these short
walking sessions.
So make sure you pick a good pace while we're talking about attention and focus,
don't be afraid to use turns in your walking on leash training.
This is a really nice way to, for those dogs that love to charge out.
So your puppy charges ahead all the time.
You can just do 180 degree turn and head back in the other direction.
Now at the beginning of this training,
you can reward your puppy as they get back in at your side,
as they get into that nice walking position.
But what it does is it keeps it fun for your puppy. It allows them to, if they,
they're not really sure where you're going. So checking in with you more often,
you wouldn't want to turn into a spinning top of your puppies constantly
charging ahead. But for those puppies who walk in at your side some of the time,
and then they start to lead ahead of this a little bit,
180 degree turn is a great way to get more focus back on you.
I want you to start planning your ending before you begin walking.
Since we're trying to teach our puppy to work a little bit,
to put in a little bit of effort,
we also need to let them know when the job is done with your puppy.
There's a couple different ways to end your walking.
The first is a lot more controlled and it's a really great way to start teaching
your puppy and automatic sit so that anytime you stop walking,
they sit in at your side.
So what I want you to do is when you have your last treat in your hand,
I want you to put it on your puppy's nose. As you're coming to a stop,
you're going to lure them up and into a sit.
And after you've been able to reward them in position,
you can release them with an okay,
another really fun way to reward a puppy. Who's you know,
maybe more interested in toys if you're probably really loves to play with toys
and loves to tug a great way to reward them for great walking is get 10 or
15 steps of, you know,
nice in position walking and then release them with an okay,
and have a game of tug. Now,
if you've been struggling to maintain your puppy's attention,
or if they've been really distracted by the environment around you,
this this random toy play ending might not be right for your dog,
but if you have a dog who's, you know,
relatively motivated by toys and has been doing a really nice job with
attention,
this is an awesome way to break up the monotony of walking back and forth.
So have some fun with that ending ditch the harness.
If you have a dog in training,
who's just learning to walk on leash without pulling.
Then you need to be giving them better information. Harnesses are great,
and all of our dogs have them,
but our dogs didn't get to use them until they learned that pulling on the
leash. Wasn't acceptable.
We often talk in these videos about wanting to give her dogs the best
information possible.
And the way to do that is to give our dogs clear information.
In the case of walking on leash training,
clear information means having a little bit more control of their neck or their
head so that we can quickly turn them away from distractions and get back to
rewarding them for being in a great position for the things that we like with a
harness.
It can become a battle of wills where the dogs getting really bad information
about what we want them to do.
You don't need to struggle for their attention if you can quickly turn them
away. So a simple, flat color is a much better choice for your puppy. Now,
one thing I occasionally hear about using a flat collar for walking training is
that my dog chokes. And if that is the case, you are definitely doing it wrong.
I want you to rewind this video and check out the points that I've mentioned,
because it's really important that your puppy isn't walking on a tight leash.
All of the exercises that we talk about control all of the reward,
positioning that that sitting in control position is focused on teaching your
dog to walk on a loosely.
So if your dog is choking because they're pulling on their collar,
you need to fix that situation first,
going for your leisurely in this formal position, isn't really reasonable.
Especially when you start going for longer walks with your dog,
you're going to need a couple of other skills.
So I want you to check out our video.
That's the biggest mistakes that people make when leash training a dog so that
you can learn about what those skills are and how to use them.
So click that card right there.
And if you're looking for some leash walking training,
that's specific to your dog and specific to your training needs,
make sure you check out the link in the description below to our Life Skills
program, where you can work with one of our McCann Dogs,
instructors to get that walking on leash looking great on that note. I'm Ken,
Happy Training.